Flash Movie Review: The Maze Runner

As infants most of us I believe asked that perpetual favorite question at any nearby adult, “Why?” I bet some of you thought I was going to say, “Are we there yet?” As young children, with a world of unexplained phenomenons taking place around us, our inquisitive minds questioned everything. When I was a kid I had a curious fascination with many of my toys; I always wanted to know how they worked. After playing with them for a short time I would try to take them apart to see what was inside that made the toys do what they did. The problem with this was I could never put the toys back together, so I quickly learned to suppress my curiosity if I wanted to keep playing with my toys. This may have been the very beginning where I slowly lost my inquisitive nature and began to take everything at face value. As an adult I tend to be more suspicious of things than curious; this possibly developed from my environment than my nature. But when I look at the people around me, the majority of them are similar in their lack of curiosity. I wonder if it has to do with that mindset of “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it?” CURIOSITY wasn’t the only thing missing from the boys who found themselves in the middle of a maze; they had no memory of their past except for their name. Things would begin to change once Thomas, played by Dylan O’Brien (The Internship, Teen Wolf-TV), showed up. Though he could not remember his past, he was not satisfied with the boys around him who did not question the things happening around them. Based on the novel by James Dashner, this action mystery had a gloomy dark dread to its story. I thought the actors were well cast for this film. Besides Dylan, I also admired Aml Ameen (Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Evidence) as Alby and Will Poulter (We’re the Millers) as Gally. I am not sure if it was intentional but I felt the story had a “Lord of the Flies” flavor to it. Surprisingly I found myself becoming anxious during the movie as the story became more intense. The special effects were good which helped make the action scenes even that more tightly wound up. Seeing this film without any knowledge of the book, I found the story had a bit of predictability to it. My major complaint had to do with the ending. For me it was unsatisfying; I prefer every movie being able to stand up on its own. In this case, a sequel is needed to figure out what had just happened. The big question is whether moviegoers are that curious.

2 2/3 stars

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About moviejoltz

From a long line of movie afficionados, one brother was the #1 renter of movies in the country with Blockbuster, I am following in the same traditions that came before me. To balance out the long hours seated in dark movie theaters, I also teach yoga and cycling. For the past 3 years, I have correctly picked the major Oscar winners... so join me as we explore the wonder of movies and search for that perfect 4 star movie.

I’m really excited about this movie. Haven’t got the chance to check it yet. I wonder whether I’ll feel the same as you about needing to wait for a sequel to be able to understand things. Great review.

Thanks for the useful critique. My kids saw a trailer for this movie and want to see it (mini Hunger Games fans) so it’s good to know to what extent it is worth shelling out the price of cinema tickets for. My boys often behave like they came off the pages of ‘Lord of the Flies’ so they might see this movie as educational / inspirational.

They did like the movie, but told me to wait for it to come to netflix. Neither has read the book but both were thinking the book would be better than the movie. A funny story – our 10 year-old grandson heard that Grandma had seen the movie. He called, announced he’s reading the book and wanted all the details on the movie. His mother said he was trying to decide if wanted to see the movie. We’re still waiting to hear his decision…